Data professionals working in financial services firms are being prevented by their legal teams from repurposing customer data for secondary use, with the two departments seemingly at loggerheads, according to new research.

Half of senior executives in UK businesses feel overwhelmed by the data generated within their organisation, a number that rises to two-thirds (61%) among those working in larger companies, with even more (67%) struggling to access their data to make business decisions.

The global data visualisation market is growing by nearly $1 billion (£770 million) a year, and is expected to be top $9 billion (£6.95 billion) by 2026 as data visualisation tools become "business critical" for any company which wants to get the most out their data.

Despite the best efforts of Government, tech industry bodies and initiatives like the Female Lead and Women in Data, females in the technology industry still earn nearly a fifth less than their male counterparts, suggesting battles for equality rage on but the war is far from won.

With GDPR’s two-year anniversary looming, it seems that smaller firms have yet to get to grips with large swathes of the regulation, with more than a third believing GDPR does not apply to the customer data they hold and just under half (49%) under the impression it does not apply to online browsing data either.

Organisations should set up data governance frameworks, monitor for algorithmic fairness and be ready to add or remove data on different groups in order to eliminate bias in the use of artificial intelligence.

New UK Chancellor Rishi Suna might be under pressure to deliver a post-Brexit bonanza for voters, but he is also being urged to splash the cash on data, amid claims that "economies and societies that find ways to unlock the value of data and distribute it fairly will be at an advantage".

The Irish Data Protection Commission - the lead privacy authority across the EU - has revealed that employee gaffes remain the biggest threat to companies’ data systems, with cybersecurity incidents accounting for just 3.5% of breaches.

Enhancing data and the quality of decisions are two of the top strategic priorities for credit management professionals in the next three years, according to a new study, which reveals nearly three quarters (72%) of executives believe there is also scope for future improvement of data analytics at their current companies.